Teething a bit

He's always got something in his mouth.  

He will teeth on chair legs, tables, pews--wooden items are nice.  (And so are plastic items.  Fuzzy items.  Metal items.  He's not too choosy.) 

Not a tame lion

We are throwing a birthday party for Gracie. I sent out invites on Paperless Post, in the shape of a carousel, because the party will be at Schenley Plaza and all the kids will get to ride on the PNC Carousel. Since we're having it at the Plaza, and not at a playground, I need to come up with activities for the kids to do. (The Plaza has a good square of grass, but it's boxed in by streets; the kids are safe but the parents will have to be watchful. It's not a place that permits mindless wandering.)

One of the games we thought of is a bean bag toss (non-competitive). We were going to make a game of "feeding the lion" and throwing them into a box with the cut out of a "mouth". Then we decided it would be more fun to knock things down, so we're going to have the kids throw the bean bags at stacks of empty boxes. Tower-toppling is still cool when you're three, right? And then David thought we could still use the lion idea by making it into a photo opp---where kids put their head in the lion's mouth for a picture.

Turns out, we had different ideas of how that would look. I was imagining one of those flat boards in an amusement park--the kind that make you look like you're wearing clothes of a different era--where you pop your head through and smile.

David was going for something more realistic.




This was what he made, after looking at photos of real lions. The mouth actually moves. He said it was designed after Aslan.

Not a tame lion.

He realized immediately that asking our girl to put her head through this lion's mouth was going to result in protests and possibly tears--and that her younger friends would have the same reaction. Knowing our girl, she would come to associate birthdays with lion's heads, and we would have to rehash the parental blunder every time she thought of it, "Why da lion Dadda? Why Gayce not want to take a picture?"

After he stopped laughing, my sweet husband started over. He found a picture of a stuffed lion--I will post the results when he's done. :)

Love this man--he will spend a quiet Sunday evening tearing up boxes for our little girl and her mama.

L

More photos of the summer

A photo post. Sweet kids, a trip downtown and summer tomatoes.

Fun things this summer

Here are a few shots from a recent trip to the zoo. We went with the Emerys and McPhersons.









Later that week, we went to Isla's birthday party. Gracie is all about birthday parties these days. She ran upstairs to get some accessories ("jewels") and also pulled her socks all the way up, just like she likes them.







Then Daddy took Gracie on a date. They went to the milkshake shop in the South Side. Here they are leaving:


Now Gracie points out various places to go on dates with Daddy. (Yesterday it was Pamela's restaurant--the patio section.)

Here we are, just going to the library:




And here is G playing with a friend in the neighbor's yard (I'm so thankful for that spot of grass.)



And here are some photos from Morris Farm. We went at the invitation of our neighbors (the ones with the spot of grass) and Grace had a blast. She ate green beans right off the vine, and lots of heirloom tomatoes. The farmer even let her pick an ear of corn, even though it wasn't quite ready.








--L

Copycat

Tonight while we were at the dinner table, Sheldon watched us from the living room floor. He was beaming as David talk to him.

"I see you there," David said.
Gracie piped up in the same sweet tone, "I see you there. "

"I love you, Little Guy," David said.
"I love you too, Little Guy," Gracie said.

David looked at me from across the table, smiled, looked back at Sheldon and said, "I will never attack you again Little Guy."

There was a long pause. Then in a very matter-of-fact tone Gracie said, "I will attack you."